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A Mystery!

Yahoo Message Number: 92899
I have a mystery for all you erudite owners out there. Bear in mind I have owned four different Country Coaches over a period of thirty years and thought I had seen almost everything happen that could happen on these wonderful machines. Here's the mystery: I live in Reno, NV, where we, like most others in the country have just gone through a very cold snap. I have a dedicated 50-amp power outlet specifically designed for the rig, but no inside storage facility for it, so, before the severe cold came, I winterized it carefully, as I do every year, making sure no water was left in any tanks or lines, and set two small ceramic space heaters on the inside to prevent freezing of my traps and any liquids left in the coach's cupboards, as we never completely empty it for winter (too big a pain in the a**). My Hurricane has been giving me a little trouble with faults lately (even though I have already had all the fuel lines replaced with better ones and just finished rebuilding practically the entire unit itself), so I left the heated floor set to 65* also, just to keep the core of the coach warm.
Well, the cold came, dropping the lows to 0, give or take a couple degrees for several nights, and the highs were only in the teens. When I went out to check the coach, as I often do, my remote entry would not unlock the door (not even a peep out of the unit), and my key wouldn't turn in the lock. I thought the lock mechanism was frozen, and did not want to force it so as not to break the key off in the lock. When things thawed out enough that the key would work (today), I got in and saw my Xantrex was in powerdown mode and giving a low batt alarm, NO incoming AC power showing on the board, but strangely enough, the clock on the microwave was still showing the correct time, and there appeared to still be power to the 110-volt outlets. When I went to the main breaker panel and snapped the dual 50-amp breakers off and on again (they did not appear to be tripped, but I cleared them anyway), ALL POWER WENT OUT in the coach and my entire panel display went dark. Now I was really stupified!
I thought if I could start the coach and get the generator running, I could begin to recharge the house batteries (2 brand new 8D AGMs bought from Schwab two months ago). Now this is the really weird part -- the minute I started the engine, EVERYTHING CAME BACK ON, as if nothing was wrong at all.
As I say, I have had a lot of experience with Country Coaches, both using them and fixing them, but I have never seen anything this strange -- it's like a gremlin is living in my coach and messing with me! If any of you have had this happen and can give me some idea of what happened here, I'd surely love to hear from you.

Travel safe,
Dave

2003 Magna Resort 42" #6240

Re: A Mystery!

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 92900
Dave,

I would start with the Xantrex charger. The reason everything came on when you started the engine was the engine powered alternator was providing the 12v needed for the batteries. I suspect they went dead because the Xantrex was not keeping them charged. There should be a circuit breaker on the side of the Xantrex that may need to be reset. Mine has a white push button but I think some are a regular switch. I believe some may have two, but not sure. You might want to take a look there first as it's easy to check.

Stay warm!

Barney

07 Inspire 52059

Re: A Mystery!

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 92903
Dave You have a 15 amp and 20 amp breaker on the inverter The 15 amp for all plug in and the 20 to the microwave. I would guess you blew the 15 amp with two heaters. We have done this with a blow dryer and a heater even pluged in to shore power. Hope this helps. Merry christmas from Idaho.
Rex 2003 Intrigue

Re: A Mystery!

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 92912
Dave does your final comment mean that the Coach now works from shorepower, generator, and battery + invertor just as it should?

Or will it only work properly with the engine running?

Dean

95 Magna 5280

Re: A Mystery!

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 92916
I'm still not sure what went on here, but the Xantrex manual says the inverter will shut the charger down when the temperature on the battery sensor registers 4 degrees or less. It got colder than that here, and with the Hurricane not working, I'm sure this is what happened, and since I couldn't get into the coach with the door frozen shut, the batteries went down to 10.5 volts. Now why that should have shut everything else down while still connected to shore power is still a mystery, as there were no breakers or GFIs tripped in the coach (including those for the inverter), and, as I said, both the clock on the microwave still showed the correct time, and the clock on the Bose radio in the bedroom was flashing, signifying a power disruption but subsequent resumption. Perhaps only one leg of the incoming two went out somehow, but I still don't understand why, immediately after starting the engine, EVERYTHING started working again with no re-setting of breakers, etc., on my part. Perhaps the power transfer switch is sensitive to cold, but I have never heard anything to that effect. Anyway, there didn't appear to be any harm done -- everything seems to be functioning normally again -- but I think I was damn lucky!

DRJ
 

Re: A Mystery!

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 93038
Sounds to me like your power regulator experienced a "spike" in the line voltage or something and shut down the shore power. Then the inverter took over on the batteries and ran them down.

Craig Spiess

2007 Inspire Divinci #51959
2005 Honda Civic Hybrid 4 Down